ABOUT THIS BOOK

Menstruation, seen alternately as something negative—a "curse" or a failed conception—or as a positive part of the reproductive process to be celebrated as evidence of fertility, has long been a universal concern. How women interpret and react to menstruation and its absence reflects their individual needs both historically as well as in the contemporary cultural, social, economic, and political context in which they live. This unique volume considers what is known of women's options and practices used to regulate menstruation—practices used to control the periodicity, quantity, color, and even consistency of menses—in different places and times, while revealing the ambiguity that those practices present.

Originating from an Internet conference held in February 1998, this volume contains fourteen papers that have been revised and updated to cover everything from the impact of the birth control pill to contemporary views on reproduction to the pharmacological properties of various herbal substances, reflecting the historical, contemporary, and anthropological perspectives of this timely and complex issue.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Etienne van de Walle is a professor of demography and a member of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He coedited Mortality and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Elisha P. Renne is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan and author of Cloth That Does Not Die: The Meaning of Cloth in Bunu Social Life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Introduction: Elisha P. Renne and Etienne van de Walle
Concepts and Definitions: Stefania Siedlecky
PART 1: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY STUDIES IN THE WEST
1. Menstrual Catharsis and the Greek Physician
Etienne van de Walle
2. Colds, Worms, and Hysteria: Menstrual Regulation in Eighteenth-Century America
Susan E. Klepp
3. Menstrual Intervention in the Nineteenth-Century United States
Janet Farrell Brodie
4. Emmenagogues and Abortifacients in the Twentieth Century: An Issue of Ambiguity
Gigi Santow
5. Pharmacological Properties of Emmenagogues: A Biomedical View
Stefania Siedlecky
6. Demography, Amenorrhea, and Fertility
Ina Warriner
7. Menstrual Regulation and the Pill
Linda S. Potter
PART 2: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES: AFRICA, SOUTHEAST ASIA, AND LATIN AMERICA
8. The Meaning of Menstrual Management in a High-Fertility Society: Guinea, West Africa
Elise Levin
9. The Blood That Links: Menstrual Regulation among the Bamana of Mali
Sangeetha Madhavan and Aisse Diarra
10. "Cleaning the Inside" and the Regulation of Menstruation in Southwestern Nigeria
Elisha P. Renne
11. Means, Motives, and Menses: Uses of Herbal Emmenagogues in Indonesia
Terence H. Hull and Valerie J. Hull
12. Regulating Menstruation in Matlab, Bangladesh: Women’s Practices and Perspectives
Heidi Bart Johnston
13. Bloodmakers Made of Blood: Quechua Ethnophysiology of Menstruation
Patricia J. Hammer
14. Midwives and Menstrual Regulation: A Guatemalan Case Study
Sheila Cosminsky
Contributors
Index

REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you with an electronic file for alternative access.

Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.

It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.